The Electric: Tesla Recruits a Manufacturing Expert In a New Push for Cheap EVs

In a fresh attempt to produce $25,000 electric vehicles, Tesla has hired manufacturing specialist Matt Tyler to jump-start its stalled efforts to cut the cost of making batteries. As Tesla’s “director of dry electrode development,” Tyler is taking on a key challenge of the EV battery industry, one that some experts jokingly compare to making a cake without eggs or any liquid.

Tyler’s job is to figure out how to manufacture batteries at very high speed without the expensive and toxic wet solvents currently used to flatten electrode powders smoothly into a cathode or anode. His boss, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, wants the process to go completely dry, which Musk estimates will cut battery costs by 15%. Tyler’s recruitment, from next-generation battery maker 24M Technologies, was first reported by InsideEVs.